JoAnn Cannon, professor of Italian and director of the Humanities Institute at the University of California, Davis, has been appointed dean of the UC Davis Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies. Cannon succeeds D. Kern Holoman, who resigned his administrative post last month to return full time to his scholarly and performance career. Holoman's appointment was to have ended June 30, 1998. Cannon's appointment is effective July 1. "Professor Cannon brings to this new position a strong record as the director of the UC Davis Humanities Institute and, as director, she has developed a broad overview of the faculty and academic programs of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef. "Her experience as an academic leader and administrator, her knowledge of the division and her scholarly accomplishments provide her with an outstanding background to assume this important position. Much remains to be done to realize the full potential of the division, and Professor Cannon's special strengths as a consensus builder will serve her and the division well as she assumes this new role." Cannon, 47, received a bachelor's degree in Italian from Wellesley College in 1971 and a doctorate in Italian from Cornell University in 1976. From 1976 to 1989, she was an assistant and then associate professor at Syracuse University. In 1989, she joined the faculty at UC Davis and was promoted to professor in 1991. Cannon served as director of the Italian program at UC Davis from 1990 to 1995 and as director of the UC Davis Humanities Institute from 1993 to the present. "I am grateful for the confidence that has been placed in me and excited about the possibilities that lie ahead," Cannon said. "I look forward to working with the faculty to nurture the intellectual vitality of this exciting and dynamic division. I am committed to working closely with Deans Metcalf (of the Division of Social Sciences) and Rock (of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) to promote distinction in scholarship and excellence in our undergraduate and graduate programs." Cannon is the author of two books and numerous scholarly articles in the field of modern and postmodern Italian literature. Her spouse, Robert H. Smiley, is dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.